Journal of medical ethics
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To characterise UK undergraduate medical ethics curricula and to identify opportunities and threats to teaching and learning. ⋯ This study describes how ethics was taught and assessed in 2004. The findings show that, although ethics now has an accepted place in the curriculum, more can be done to ensure that the recommended content is taught and assessed optimally.
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Journal of medical ethics · Feb 2006
ReviewStimulating debate: ethics in a multidisciplinary functional neurosurgery committee.
Multidisciplinary healthcare committees meet regularly to discuss patients' candidacy for emerging functional neurosurgical procedures, such as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS). Through debate and discussion around the surgical candidacy of particular patients, functional neurosurgery programs begin to mold practice and policy supported both by scientific evidence and clear value choices. These neurosurgical decisions have special considerations not found in non-neurologic committees. The professional time used to resolve these conflicts provides opportunities for the emergence of careful, ethical practices simultaneous with the expansion of therapy applications.
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Abstract ethics mostly focuses on what we do. One form of action is a speech act. What we say can have profound effects. ⋯ To complicate matters, there can be moral reasons for overriding what is good for the patient. What kind of admonishments should we make to a badly behaved patient? What is the value of authenticity in our communication with the people we love? These questions demand an ethical defence of those speech acts which are painful to hear but which need to be said, and of those which go wrong despite the best efforts of the wellwisher. We offer an ethical account, identifying permissible and impermissible justifications for the things we say to a person with a serious injury or illness.